Pierce College’s Department of Physics and Planetary Sciences hosted a Telescope Night on Monday, June 2 at the Center for Sciences for students and members of the community to view the night sky through their lenses.
The Physics and Planetary Science Department has been hosting Telescope Night for more than 10 years and hosts one each semester to explore the different elements of the night sky.
This event is not only encouraged for students, but also for family and friends, as well as the community to come out and join in on the views of the universe.
Physics and Planetary Department Professor Dale Fields shared the objective of having an event like Telescope Night.
“It’s for people to actually connect and see the kind of things that our ancestors would just see each night looking up at the sky,” Fields said. “Enjoying a little bit of the night sky and to maybe see things they’ve never seen before.”
Emily Peraldi, a resident of Woodland Hills, explained how she heard about the event despite not being a student at Pierce.
“I always search up events in the community and since I’m a local to this area it popped up,” Peraldi said. “I’ve always been into looking into the stars and when I was in college I took an astronomy class so I just wanted to see what type of telescopes there were.”
Throughout the night, it was planned for attendees to see the moon and its different craters and structures, planetary targets, star clusters and at least one galaxy. Each telescope had a different set up at various angles for attendees to view different perspectives.
Biology Major Mia Gil attended multiple science events this semester and shared why this one in particular sparked her interest, as well as her reaction to looking into the telescopes.
“A lot of the other events I saw were just presentations and then this was more hands-on where you can look into the telescopes and physically see the moon,” Gil said. “It’s kind of weird to see, it’s just amazing how that little telescope can see that far.”
Fields expressed the importance of having nights like Telescope Night on campus.
“A big reason is that we are a community college, and therefore we need to serve the community,” Fields said. “We need to let the community know that they can come in and see things and expand themselves and see the purpose of having Pierce College. We’re nothing without the people around us.”
